Sailors fighting in the dance hallOh man! Look at those cavemen goIt's the freakiest showTake a look at the LawmanBeating up the wrong guyOh man! Wonder if he'll ever knowHe's in the best selling showIs there life ice on Mars?

What happened here is that a man was enthusiastic and excited about his job and progress in his field, then some cynical bitter folk decided that wasn't on, so they'll drag him down and beat him and tell him that it is not OK to be publicly enthusiastic.

People don't understand nerds. Nerds are enthusiastic about things most people don't find interesting. That's kinda the definition of "nerd", as it's commonly used these days. Like, when gamer nerds crit with a vorpal blade while fighting a tarrasque, they're going to freak the fark out, because that's pretty incredible, right there.

NASA nerds are no different. When they find a rock with a geological composition that isn't in line with what tehy thought they were going to find, they're going to go, "Holy crap! That's farking awesome!" And the rest of the world is going to go, "It's... it's just a rock."

t3knomanser:People don't understand nerds. Nerds are enthusiastic about things most people don't find interesting. That's kinda the definition of "nerd", as it's commonly used these days. Like, when gamer nerds crit with a vorpal blade while fighting a tarrasque, they're going to freak the fark out, because that's pretty incredible, right there.

NASA nerds are no different. When they find a rock with a geological composition that isn't in line with what tehy thought they were going to find, they're going to go, "Holy crap! That's farking awesome!" And the rest of the world is going to go, "It's... it's just a rock."

Yeah, but even in the nerd community, this was played up that it may be something like an organic molecule, which would be EPIC nerdgasm for sure, though the average person would be quite meh about it. Instead, it now sounds as if it's going to be something far less interesting, even for a nerd, like a new kind of mineral not formerly known to exist there. Meh indeed, if that is the case.

Some of the commenters in TFA had it spot on: The typical American is about as scientifically aware as an old boot. When one of the people doing science stuff says "we've found something earthshaking", people assume Martians. Then when it's a fascinating crystal structure that scientists didn't expect to see in the mineral matrix, the typical American is easier to sway that all the NASA wonks are doing is stealing yer tax money. So what needs to be done is really that the people at NASA need to shut their yaps about stuff that gets them hard, because it rarely gives the typical American the same boner. When they're positive that they've got Marvin and his Illudium q-36 explosive space modulator in the Mars rover's specimen box, then they can throw a presser and show the video.

Elon Musk has paid off everyone who knows about the Martians that Curiosity unearthed. Scientists are supposed to be more principled than that, but there you have it. The question now is, what does Elon plan on doing with the Martians, and why does he need to keep them a secret?

NASA only gets their budget cut because it's run by scientists FOR scientists, so their budget keeps getting slashed. The Pentagon dropped several Apollo Mission's worth of bombs on Iraq alone. Why? Because the boring farks don't do anything but study rocks.

ALL WE WANT IS LIFE ON ANOTHER PLANET! That's ALL anyone outside the astrophysics community (read: 6.9999 billion people) cares about.Not building blocks. Not potential for future missions. Not confirmation of findings that were boring when the Viking probes made them in the 70's: but honest to goodness critters that ain't from Earth. Failing that, send some guys up there. Or ladies. No women have been to the moon. Make that your goal and get that sweet, sweet garterbelt money.

You have to feed the public's hunger. Play it up. Make people actually excited. Focus on that kind of research publicly while keeping the REAL science on the DL. Get people excited for that, you'll get a bigger budget. Go poke some more rocks or have a ceremony for the "first quadroon transexual astronaut formermly named Steve to visit the ISS on a leap year" or some other meaningless "milestone" that isn't putting people on the moon or finding aliens and you're not winning any friends in the public sector, even if you do invent useless crap like teflon and dried ice cream from time to time.

dahmers love zombie:Some of the commenters in TFA had it spot on: The typical American is about as scientifically aware as an old boot. When one of the people doing science stuff says "we've found something earthshaking", people assume Martians. Then when it's a fascinating crystal structure that scientists didn't expect to see in the mineral matrix, the typical American is easier to sway that all the NASA wonks are doing is stealing yer tax money. So what needs to be done is really that the people at NASA need to shut their yaps about stuff that gets them hard, because it rarely gives the typical American the same boner. When they're positive that they've got Marvin and his Illudium q-36 explosive space modulator in the Mars rover's specimen box, then they can throw a presser and show the video.

The typical person from any country is about as scientifically aware as...

"Rock, Neil? I don't know whether you looked at the planet before you took off, but it's made of farking rock!" "But it's Moon rock ..." "Oh, farking hell, this is Earth rock, Neil, come on! Have you heard, on the stock market, rock's gone up three points? No, it hasn't, has it? 'Cause it's farking rock!"

The change in the excitement meter has done nothing to have any effect on anyone's lives (who doesn't work for the NASA PR department). I for one am happy that somebody can be excited enough about their job that they can remotely sift tons of dirt on another planet looking for interesting things to share.

But now, NASA is backpedaling. The nature of Curiosity's discovery has been downgraded from "earthshaking" to "interesting," and many are crying foul. They feel misled, cheated and deceived, and Grotzinger has been roundly condemned for blowing the discovery out of proportion.

The media plays telephone with a sentence or two and actively builds up as much speculation as they can, then blames NASA when the bubble they created and inflated pops? Real classy guys. Pretty sure you're the ones doing the backpedaling here.

NASA only gets their budget cut because it's run by scientists FOR scientists, so their budget keeps getting slashed. The Pentagon dropped several Apollo Mission's worth of bombs on Iraq alone. Why? Because the boring farks don't do anything but study rocks.

ALL WE WANT IS LIFE ON ANOTHER PLANET! That's ALL anyone outside the astrophysics community (read: 6.9999 billion people) cares about.Not building blocks. Not potential for future missions. Not confirmation of findings that were boring when the Viking probes made them in the 70's: but honest to goodness critters that ain't from Earth. Failing that, send some guys up there. Or ladies. No women have been to the moon. Make that your goal and get that sweet, sweet garterbelt money.

You have to feed the public's hunger. Play it up. Make people actually excited. Focus on that kind of research publicly while keeping the REAL science on the DL. Get people excited for that, you'll get a bigger budget. Go poke some more rocks or have a ceremony for the "first quadroon transexual astronaut formermly named Steve to visit the ISS on a leap year" or some other meaningless "milestone" that isn't putting people on the moon or finding aliens and you're not winning any friends in the public sector, even if you do invent useless crap like teflon and dried ice cream from time to time.

This

dahmers love zombie:Some of the commenters in TFA had it spot on: The typical American is about as scientifically aware as an old boot. When one of the people doing science stuff says "we've found something earthshaking", people assume Martians. Then when it's a fascinating crystal structure that scientists didn't expect to see in the mineral matrix, the typical American is easier to sway that all the NASA wonks are doing is stealing yer tax money. So what needs to be done is really that the people at NASA need to shut their yaps about stuff that gets them hard, because it rarely gives the typical American the same boner. When they're positive that they've got Marvin and his Illudium q-36 explosive space modulator in the Mars rover's specimen box, then they can throw a presser and show the video.

DON.MAC:Had the idiot given a more details at the time, this wouldn't have been a problem but he wanted to be sure. I'm sure he will be looking for a job as NASA budget cuts get deeper.

Exactly. Just release the data or info to the public. Stop trying to keep everything a secret.

Do we really need a news conference to hear you didnt detect methane "at this time?"

I have to say this entire mission is sketchy. The fact that we're only indirectly searching for life, the ignoring of rocks we've never seen, slow release of lack of context (not remotely near ANY of the known methane concentrations), etc...

If i was a conspiracy theorist id say theyre intentionally hiding a lot.

Wouldn't that be great? Mining corporations would be falling over themselves to get there, and NASA's budget would explode, that is if history is any indication of what motivates large scale expeditions.

Wouldn't that be great? Mining corporations would be falling over themselves to get there, and NASA's budget would explode, that is if history is any indication of what motivates large scale expeditions.

/cynic at best.

Even if Mars turned out to be a solid lump of gold with a bit of dust on the surface concealing it, it would still be a good hundred+ years before we had the means to actually go there, mine it, and send it back in a remotely cost-effective manner.

Wouldn't that be great? Mining corporations would be falling over themselves to get there, and NASA's budget would explode, that is if history is any indication of what motivates large scale expeditions.

Wouldn't that be great? Mining corporations would be falling over themselves to get there, and NASA's budget would explode, that is if history is any indication of what motivates large scale expeditions.

/cynic at best.

Even if Mars turned out to be a solid lump of gold with a bit of dust on the surface concealing it, it would still be a good hundred+ years before we had the means to actually go there, mine it, and send it back in a remotely cost-effective manner.

Not to mention that even a miniscule fraction of that much gold would totally destroy the world economy if it could be brought here cost effectively. Gold is only valuable because it′s relatively scarce. And yes, kinda pretty for a metal.

Wouldn't that be great? Mining corporations would be falling over themselves to get there, and NASA's budget would explode, that is if history is any indication of what motivates large scale expeditions.

/cynic at best.

Even if Mars turned out to be a solid lump of gold with a bit of dust on the surface concealing it, it would still be a good hundred+ years before we had the means to actually go there, mine it, and send it back in a remotely cost-effective manner.

Not to mention that even a miniscule fraction of that much gold would totally destroy the world economy if it could be brought here cost effectively. Gold is only valuable because it′s relatively scarce. And yes, kinda pretty for a metal.

I'm no economy scientist, but would it? I thought the vast majority of the world had moved off of the gold standard by now. I can see it having an effect on certain jewelry makers, and possibly some high tech electronics...

Wouldn't that be great? Mining corporations would be falling over themselves to get there, and NASA's budget would explode, that is if history is any indication of what motivates large scale expeditions.

/cynic at best.

Even if Mars turned out to be a solid lump of gold with a bit of dust on the surface concealing it, it would still be a good hundred+ years before we had the means to actually go there, mine it, and send it back in a remotely cost-effective manner.

Not to mention that even a miniscule fraction of that much gold would totally destroy the world economy if it could be brought here cost effectively. Gold is only valuable because it′s relatively scarce. And yes, kinda pretty for a metal.

I considered these two points, which are good ones, but I think the first (if it was possible) would help to diminish the second. Gold is not only a good basis of curacy because of it's scarcity, but because it requires a lot of work to get a small amount of it. If it was in the least bit cost-effective to get it here, the time and energy required to do so would give it "sweat equity." I doubt that it would be cost-effective or bountiful enough to flood the gold market, and even if it did, someone would still get rich in the process, so it would still a good motivator for colonization . Just look at the last two US gold rushes: people got rich, the market adjusted, and new land was settled.

...and this time we wouldn't even have to commit genocide... Hopefully.

justtray:DON.MAC: Had the idiot given a more details at the time, this wouldn't have been a problem but he wanted to be sure. I'm sure he will be looking for a job as NASA budget cuts get deeper.

Exactly. Just release the data or info to the public. Stop trying to keep everything a secret.

Do we really need a news conference to hear you didnt detect methane "at this time?"

I have to say this entire mission is sketchy. The fact that we're only indirectly searching for life, the ignoring of rocks we've never seen, slow release of lack of context (not remotely near ANY of the known methane concentrations), etc...

If i was a conspiracy theorist id say theyre intentionally hiding a lot.